Racing Post is one of the lucky publications that has its niche cornered. Similar to publications with a strong hold on their audience, it has successfully put online subscriptions to good use since the early 2000s. But not all paywalls are created equal, and Racing Post was working with a homemade solution that was no longer cutting the mustard. It decided to revamp its paid content strategy to better serve its consumers, grow subscriber numbers, and collect greater insight into its audience.

Chicago-Area Consortium Chooses Sirsi

BEST PRACTICES SERIES

Sirsi Corporation, a provider of technology for libraries, has announced that the Library Integrated Network Consortium (LINC), headquartered in St. Charles, Illinois, has selected Sirsi's suite of products and services in an effort to improve end-user experience and provide back-end functionality for library personnel. Comprised of eight public libraries in the Chicago area, LINC serves more than 180,000 library users. LINC's suite of Sirsi products includes the Unicorn Library Management System, iBistro e-Library solution, and DataStream enriched content, as well as related services.

At present LINC serves eight member libraries: Batavia, Bloomingdale, Franklin Park, Glen Ellyn, Itasca, St. Charles, Villa Park, and West Chicago with a combined population served of 180,000. Their database includes over 460,000 bibliographic records with over one million attached holdings. In 2002, circulation for current members was approximately 2.6 million. LINC also provides Internet access for staff and patrons at over 300 workstations, using Sirsi as their Internet Service Provider. LINC was established in April 1992 to provide a reliable online public access catalog and circulation system to patrons at member public libraries.